[MUSIC PLAYING]
SHANE ADAMS: Hey, everybody.
My name is Shane Adams.
I'm president of Artist Accelerator here in Nashville.
I am a founding instructor for Berklee Online,
teaching our songwriting program.
I am so excited to talk to you guys today about learning some songwriting
tips, some stuff that it doesn't matter what style you write in,
what genre, these tips, these hints, these helps,
these will help you no matter what style you're writing.
And I've worked with hundreds of writers and I've analyzed thousands of songs.
And so I handpicked these very things just for you to make you awesome.
And when you're awesome, give me credit.
All right, let's get right into it.
Favorite thing to talk about is melody.
A lot of times, a songwriter only uses the melody
that falls out of his mouth, the first thing
that when they start writing a song.
But there's some really cool tips to accentuate, amplify, your melody.
Let's talk about them right now.
The first thing is almost everybody, for some reason, we are drawn to stability.
And on a musical scale--
[PLAYS KEYBOARD SCALE]
--we're drawn to what's called the tonic or the root of the key.
So I'm just going to play an awesome C scale here.
(SINGING) 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1.
So if I was to write a song in this key, almost every songwriter,
they automatically-- they're drawn to that note.
[PLAYING KEYBOARD AND HUMMING
IN TUNE]
And there's nothing wrong with that note.
It's a wonderful note to use.
But kind of everybody does it.
The other note everyone uses is the fifth degree of the scale.
So--
(SINGING) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
You know.
[PLAYING KEYBOARD AND HUMMING IN TUNE]
So the color notes, the notes that people aren't using as much,
but also have a real vibrancy when you're writing a song,
are the second degree of the scale, the third, and the sixth.
I'm so glad I held up the right amount of fingers.
The second, third, and sixth notes, they actually
provide a little bit of dissonance in the melody.
And a lot of times, in popular songs-- and in actually not just popular songs,
but just great songwriting in general, like when we hear something,
like, oh my gosh, that has a great melody,
it's usually incorporating these notes, especially
as your starting and finishing notes.
So for instance, here's that root note.
(SINGING) 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
So here, just instead of starting on the one, I'll start on the two.
(SINGING) 1, 2.
And again, notice that there's a little bit of dissonance there.
And we'll compare.
Here is started on the root.
(SINGING) 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1.
Right?
But checks this out.
(SINGING) 2, 2, 3, 2, 2.
2, 2, 3, 2, 2.
And again, there's a little bit of dissonance.
And of course, if you had an amazing singer,
unlike me, that would sound awesome.
But most people don't consider that.
Let's-- on the third.
(SINGING) 1, 2, 3.
So, 3, 3--
Can you hear how there's a dissonance on that second chord?
(SINGING) 3, 3, 2, 2, 1.
The other one is the 6th.
So, (SINGING) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Or going backwards-- (SINGING) 1, 1, 7, 6.
I'm going to start there, because that's more my key.
(SINGING) 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 1.
Now, a few years ago, I judged a contest.
People sent songs from all over the country--
all over the world, in fact.
And it was amazing to me.
About 75% of the songs that were sent in,
their melodies all started on that root.
And I would say roughly 15% started on the fifth.
So already, if you start your melody on the second, or sixth,
you're already doing something that, you know, 80%, 90%, of other songwriters
aren't doing.
And so your song is going to completely stand out.
So super trick number one.